Lead Acquisitions Manager

High Speed Two (HS2); Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 77,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible benefits fund (20% of base)

Job summary

HS2 Ltd is seeking a Lead Acquisitions Manager to lead a team of technical surveyors ensuring timely delivery of land and property for the HS2 project. You will own the Area Acquisition strategy, promote a positive claimant experience, and manage negotiations with major landowners while ensuring fair compensation and adherence to public money rules.

The role requires strong leadership, stakeholder engagement, and collaboration across departments to shape the future of land and property

Qualifications

• Experience of leading and developing a team.
• Delivery experience in a similar acquisition environment (to a programme timetable).
• Ability to manage suppliers and build sustainable strategic relationships.

Responsibilities

• Promote and embed Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all work.
• Own and lead the Area Acquisition Team performance and objectives.
• Develop and own strategy for Area Acquisition delivery, identifying risks and opportunities.
• Oversee acquisition of land and property with timely case completion and clear stakeholder communication.
• Ensure decisions align with public money management and fair compensation.
• Build relationships with major land and property owners to support negotiations.
• Provide advice to HS2 departments on acquisition and related decisions.
• Collaborate within the property acquisition management team for consistent approaches.
• Contribute to acquisition and property management planning and strategy.

Skills

Supplier management

Influence & communication

Negotiation

Stakeholder empathy

Education

Surveying knowledge

Understanding of compulsory purchase process

Job description

Salary: Base salary: £65,474pa to c.£77,028pa depending on skills and experience. In addition, we offer flexible benefits fund of 20% which is paid on top base salary and is fully pensionable, as well as a range of competitive benefits - check them out in the Benefits section on our website.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives and achieves their full potential. In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

As a Lead Acquisitions Manager at HS2 you will lead a team of technical surveyors to ensure timely delivery of the required land and property required for the HS2 project.

About the role:

• Actively promote and embed Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work, and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures on EDI
• Ownership of the performance of the L&P Area Acquisition Team. Manage the Area Acquisition Team, setting objectives, reviewing performance and ensuring staff have the necessary skills and understanding to deliver the team's objectives.
• Develop and own the strategy for the delivery of the Area Acquisition activity, which identifies the risks, opportunities and potential benefits that can be delivered by the L&P team on behalf of HS2.
• Be responsible for the acquisition of land and property focusing on providing a responsive and positive experience for the claimant.This will require timely completion of cases and high standards of communication with all stakeholders.
• Ensure financial decisions are made in line with managing public money, and providing fair compensation.
• Proactively develop relationships with major/high profile affected land and property owners, individuals and organisations to enable the negotiation process to be carried out effectively.
• Provide advice to other HS2 departments, including the delivery function, town planning, environment, and petition management stakeholders to inform decision making.
• Collaborate and communicate with other members of the property acquisition management team to ensure a common and consistent approach is adopted across Land & Property in HS2.
• Contribute to the development of acquisition and property management business planning and strategy development.

About You:

Skills:

• Ability to manage suppliers and to build sustainable strategic relationships with suppliers and the supplier market.
• Ability to engage and influence through communication skills
• Ability to lead sensitive negotiations in a tactful way
• Empathy and ability to engage with affected landowners on sensitive issues

Knowledge:

• Knowledge of surveying
• An understanding of the compulsory purchase process or other government compensation schemes.

Type of experience:

• Experience of leading and developing a team
• Delivery experience in a similar acquisition environment (to a programme timetable)

The post-holder is expected to behave at all times in a manner consistent with the HS2 values of Safety, Leadership, Integrity and Respect. It is expected that you will actively promote and embed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures on EDI.

As HS2 Ltd do not hold a sponsorship license from the Home Office, we are not able to provide sponsorship to any applicant. Applicants must already have the Right to Work in the UK at the time of application and our process involves a Right to Work validation prior to the interview stage. Note, there are certain types of time-bound visas that we cannot accept.

Any offers made to applicants will be subject to satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks which include Nationality & Immigration Status, employment references, DBS, Financial and Education checks.

We ask for a variety of detail in your online application, however we perform the first assessment of suitability for a role based solely on the information in your CV. In a further development of our efforts to create a more diverse workforce, your CV will be anonymised and personal information will be removed during the first stage of the application review. This removes bias from the process and makes it even more important that you attach an updated word version of your CV for each new application ensuring you include evidence directly related to the criteria in the job advert. Watch this video on how we remove bias in the recruitment process:Removing bias in the recruitment process

Any applications received after the closing date will not be considered.

About Us

High Speed 2 (HS2 Ltd) will be the UK's new high speed rail network. As well as improving capacity, the new scheme will shorten journey times between a number of Britain’s major population centres, boost the economy and create thousands of jobs.

HS2 Ltd will create a skills legacy and develop a diverse range of talent. We aim to be a leader in EDI practice by creating a safe & inclusive working environment for all our staff - living our values of Safety, Respect, Integrity and Leadership.

In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

HS2 Ltd is also a safety-critical organisation. Employees are required to ensure reasonable care of their own and others' health and safety by taking personal responsibility for working to our 'Safe at Heart' programme principles and following safe working procedures at all times.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives and achieves their full potential.

Job Info

• Job Identification 260465
• Job Category Land and Property
• Job Schedule Full time
• Locations 2 Snowhill, Birmingham, B4 6GA, GB
• Permanent or Fixed Term Contract Permanent